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Plotto: The Master Contest of All Plots – Student Edition

ByMasie Cochran | September 28th, 2012 – 05:00 pm

In 1928, William Wallace Cook published Plotto: The Master Book of All Plots, a “how-to” manual for writers in need of that extra plot push so many of us strive for and struggle with, to make a story actually do something. The dreaded question—“What happens?”—can now be answered, following Cook’s deceptively simple formula: “purpose, opposed by Obstacle, yields Conflict.”

In a dizzying array of possible plot suggestions, hundreds of situations and scenarios, Cook inspires Plottoists and their as-of-yet unwritten imagination. We look forward to reading your stories!